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2/01/22 I Appreciate You!

When was the last time you looked your wife in the eyes and said, “I appreciate you”? For that matter, when have you ever simply spent some time with your children and expressed the appreciation you have for them? If that is not part of your MO, why have you been so fooled? Only the enemy of your soul would desire expressions of love and affirmation to be absent from your relationships, especially family relationships.

Most of us men had to earn any kind of affirmation from our fathers. Then, as we grew older, we earned our respect by what we did, not for who we became. All our lives we’ve been attempting to prove our worth by what we do, whether we know it or not. Visible success determines worth in today’s society.

Well, that’s not how God sees things! For some unknown reason, God has placed value on each of us, certainly not because we have earned it; but simply because he chooses to do so. He has in essence said, I consider them valuable enough to spend eternity with them. I appreciate who they are!

Men, the next time you withhold any expression of appreciation toward your wife or your children because you feel they haven’t earned your appreciation, remember how God has dealt with you. Then consider the horror of Him choosing to withhold His favor until you’ve earned it. If that really registers with you, you just might begin to express a waterfall of appreciation to those you love. Just watch as their lives change in the same way that a desert would if water began to flow into its parched land. They’re waiting for you!

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

1/31/22 Follow Me as I Follow Christ

These incredible words are one of the most powerful directions a man can give to his family. Just think of it, a man who chooses to follow Christ could assure his family that no matter what happens, he has Christ as a guide for himself and them. How comforting this would be for a wife and family who are serving the Lord.

With that kind of commitment in place, the man would have a corresponding commitment to do everything to protect his family, just as Christ did for the church. He would willingly lay his life down for the ones he loves.

Can you imagine the peace a family would have in knowing that their husband and father would lay his life down for them? Do you see the impact that kind of atmosphere would create? A wife would be free to trust motives and decisions made in doing things that affect the family. The children would bask in an arena of absolute, unquestioned love. The family unit would be impenetrable. The outside forces against the family would never gain a foothold.

What a glorious picture - all members moving in unison, guided and directed by a father who is guided and directed by God alone. What an astounding plan! Maybe that’s the way our Father in heaven wants it. What do you think?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

1/31/22 Choose Jesus!

“Choose Jesus! In everything you do, choose Jesus! When temptation comes your way, choose Jesus! When fear attempts to overpower you, choose Jesus! Whisper it quietly, say it out loud, express it from your heart; choose Jesus and watch the enemy flee.

"Planted thoughts, wandering motives, and rampant temptations have no power over your choice to surrender to Jesus and all His completed work in your life. Choosing Him brings His resurrected life to you in full force to overcome. Cease from striving. Call out to Jesus and invoke His covenant promises.

"Choose Jesus over and over again until your choice becomes an expression of praise and a statement of rock solid commitment. Choose Jesus! He is Lord over all!”

Matt. 13:54-58 AMP

54) And coming to His own country [Capernaum], He taught in their synagogue so that they were amazed with bewildered wonder, and said, Where did this Man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

55) Is not this the carpenter’s Son? Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56) And do not all His sisters live here among us? Where then did this Man get all this?

57) And they took offense at Him [that is, they were repelled and hindered from acknowledging His authority, and caused to stumble]. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.

58) And He did not do many works of power there, because of their unbelief (their lack of faith in the divine mission of Jesus).

Luke 10:19 KJV

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

John 6:57 AMP

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.

This message comes to me as a warm friend. For many years, my thought life seemed out of control. I would be praying, spending time with God, and without warning find myself thinking incredible, wandering, sometimes foul thoughts. I would have to snap my thoughts back into perspective, repenting of my inability to keep focused.

One day, as I was questioning my Father about this situation, He showed me that the enemy planted those thoughts. If I didn’t continue in them once I realized that they were there, I hadn’t sinned. That alone was incredibly refreshing. Then He spoke to my heart, “Choose Jesus.” So simple! Choose Jesus over the prevailing thoughts.

Since those days, I choose Jesus the moment I realize that my mind has wandered. Sometimes I say it out loud. Sometimes I whisper it in love to my Father, confirming and thanking Him for what Jesus has done. It may sound like a formula, and maybe it once was; but it has become a loving heart expression of my acceptance of all that He has done and is doing for me. I choose Jesus and nothing else. There is no other. Saying it has become a form of praise to Him and brings everything into proper focus.

I choose only You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

1/29/22 Because He Lives

“The highest honor you can bestow on Jesus is to imitate Him in your daily life. He lived to make that visible. He died to make that possible. He now lives as a witness to the wonder of what has been accomplished.”

John 6:57 AMP

1 Cor. 11:1 NIV

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Ephesians 3:10-12 AMP

10) [The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.

11) This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord.

12) In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).

1 John 2:6 AMP

Whoever says he abides in Him ought [as a personal debt] to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.

The life that we have been given is more wondrous than we can ever imagine. Immense heavenly resources were spent so that you and I can flow in the character of Jesus Christ for eternity through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are His because of Him. We remain His because He lives.

Thank You, Jesus!

Jim Corbett

1/29/22 An Incredible Heart

I wish I could give proper credit to the players in this story, but I don’t remember who they were or when the story took place. I just remember how much it impacted me.

The story goes that a father set some rules for his children to obey, so that there would be harmony in the home and Jesus would be glorified. If a violation of any one of the rules took place, the violator had to spend the night in the barn - not only for punishment, but to have that person think about how good it was to not be separated from the rest of the family. At the time, belonging to a family unit was a very important thing, so being an outcast (even for a short time) hurt.

After one of the children was sent to the barn for a violation that had occurred during the day, he heard - amid the strange groans and creaks encountered in a loft late at night - a particularly clear presence of someone else in the barn. As he cowered in fear, awaiting the intruder to make himself known, his father’s face appeared at the ladder. As he entered the loft with a pillow and blanket in hand, he said something like this. “I had to follow through with giving you the consequences you earned, so I couldn’t let you in the house; but that doesn’t stop me from coming out here to spend the night with you so you won’t be afraid.”

As a father, have you ever given of yourself even when strong discipline is deserved by one of your children? Has there ever been a big dose of love accompanying it? As it says in the Word, our Father disciplines us for our own good. Do you do the same?

Let’s talk more!

Jim Corbett

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